Cultural sensitivity in publishing

 Source: The Malaysian Insider

Interlok, a Bahasa Malaysia novel that was chosen as a required reading for Form Five students. It's written by Abdullah Hussain in 1971 which tells about the pre-independent times of Tanah Melayu (Malaysia). The novel talk about how the Malaysian multicultural society came about with the beginning of colonial society and the arrivals of Indians and Chinese labourers (Kuppusamy 2011).  It came into controversy when the book was found to contain an offensive word which is considered as a derogatory term by the Indian community, who feels strongly about the issue which lead to a call for a ban on the book.

Language is understood in its relationship to social culture (Halliday & Ruqaiya 1985, p. 4). It means that the semiotic of the signifier and the signified is affected by the human culture and how each culture interprets each sign differently (Halliday & Ruqaiya 1985, p. 3). In a Malaysian context, people might find the novel content offensive due to the cultural upbringing that affects a reader's interpretation process. But in a outsiders context, they might find the novel content to be non-offensive and instead finding it educational with the history of Malaysia and how its multicultural society came about.

Schirato & Yell (1996, p. 110) states that 'intertextuality refers to the process of making sense of texts in reference to their relations with other text. It involves the circulation and exchange of meanings, not as atomised bits but as packages of meanings'. As each individual is brought up in different culture, values and tradition, the process of making meaning of a text differs which individuals draws their own knowledge and experience in meaning making (Schirato & Yell, 1996, p. 110). People who feel offended by the novel feels so because they relate to the experience of being called the derogatory term in the past which caused their dissatisfaction when it's found in a context of a book.

Similarly, Walsh (2006, p. 25) also mentions that a text interpreted can be enhanced by the reader's background knowledge of the world, along with cultural and linguistic knowledge. People who are not familiar with the Malaysian cultural and linguistic standards will not be aware of the offensive term and would just remark it as a normal term. But for those who are familiar with a Malaysian context of the society, they would understand the full meaning of the derogatory term.

Therefore, it's important to consider cultural sensitivity in ethical publishing as it might offend certain parties unknowingly.

References

1. Halliday, M.A.K & Ruqaiya, H 1985, 'Chapter 1: Context of Situation', Language,context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, Deakin University Press, Victoria, p. 3-14.

2. Kuppusamy, B 2011, Unlocking the 'Interlock' issues, The Star, 9 January, viewed 11 June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=focus&file=/2011/1/9/focus/7763036>.

3. Shriver, K 1997, 'Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publication, New York, p. 361-441.

4. Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Australia, vol. 29, p. 24-37.